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If you ask me what my very favourite thing is I would not hesitate to say my family. I came into motherhood quite late on, and was immediately overwhelmed with how amazing it is. Now I would like nothing more than to be a Domestic Goddess, and surround my family in love, good food, beautiful things and lots of happy memories. And like the majority of families these days, we need to do it on a budget!

I firmly believe we all have a little bit of the Domestic Goddess inside us, just waiting to break out. Whether that is knowing how to make a roast chicken feed a family of 4 for a week, being able to make, repair or recycle clothes, hunting down a bargain, or simply turning everyday, simple things into pretty or useful items, with a little bit of imagination we can all dip in to the Goddess inside and make our lives that little bit more interesting.



I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy sharing my (challenging) journey into Domestic Goddessness!



Monday, July 9, 2012

If you can't find it, make it.

It's Monday, and you know what that means, so once you've finished here, go and see what everyone else has been up to in the crafting world this week over on Handmade Harbour for Handmade Monday. You know you won't be disappointed!

This week we finally evicted Teaghan from our bedroom! She is almost one now (where has the time gone!) and we felt it was time she had a little bit of Independence from us. So she has moved into her big sister's room. Obviously before now the room was solely Caoimhe's. When she was born, we bought some ceramic letters from Hobbycraft to spell her name out on the wall (incidentally it worked really well, as she has been able to spell her name since she was 2, which is a lot more than her grandad can do!) We wanted to do the same for Teaghan, but have been unable to source any letters, at least none that we really liked. Same with her door plaque. We were lucky enough to have one given to us for Caoimhe but I didn't know where to start for Teaghan.

I thought it would be a lovely idea to get her door plaque made, so I looked around some of the lovely crafters whose blogs I follow. But I wasn't even sure what theme I wanted, or what style. Caoimhe's is a lovely, fairly plain plaque so I didn't want anything that stood out more than that does. (anyone with 2 or more children will know what I'm getting at here!)

So last week I had a good think about what I have at home, and what I thought I would be able to do myself.

First of all I loaded up my Craft Artist disc and chose some background papers, and letters that I liked. I  printed them off, and glued them onto Artist mount board before applying Mod Podge for a nice finish. When the letters were dry, I cut them out and stuck them onto the plaque, and tried out lots of embellishments, stars, buttons, flowers... but in the end I decided that Less is More and it looked fine as it was. I think it's bright and colourful and just right for a child's room.



I had some sticky foam strips, so I have used these to attach it to the door.



When it came to the lettering for the bedroom wall, I once again turned to the disc for a bit of inspiration (it's getting some serious hammering!) and saw that there was a template for party bunting. You just drag over your chosen background, add any embellishments etc and press print.. I wanted to add embellishments myself so I just chose two backgrounds in contrasting colours (I chose the same paper as I had used for the door plaque to continue the theme) and printed them out. I cut them out, stuck them to artist mounting board (and incidentally it's from the same bag of cut offs I bought months ago as regular readers might remember, so what a bargain quid that turned out to be!) and applied lots of Mod Podge again. . Then I chose the letters I wanted and printed those out, too. More mod podge and cutting out, left to dry for a few hours and I was ready to assemble it. I used buttons from my stash to embellish it, and strung it all up on a paper twine. I was quite pleased with the finished article!




I enjoyed making these, and they didn't take long to make really, drying time aside. I wish I had thought of making them sooner, rather than all that Internet browsing, although it did give me inspiration for other possible future projects.


Don't forget to have a wander over to Handmade Harbour, as I will be doing once the kids are in bed! Have a great week!

Til next time!




15 comments:

Caroline said...

Hello. This is gorgeous love the colours really bright and cheerful. Caroline xxx

Anonymous said...

What a great idea making them yourself - and far more satisfying! I love the ideas you have come up with.(Hope the move to the new room goes smoothly!)

Free Spirit Designs said...

awww these are lovely! and all the more special for little Teaghan that they've been made for her by her mum :) x

Wendy said...

Gorgeous and colourful and all the more special for being handmade by you x

Christmas Pie Crafts said...

It's lovely to try new things and Teaghan's 'banner' looks lovley - a real keepsake for her. Sounds like you ahd a goot time making it and you are right, so much inspiratin of the internet. Er, how did we manage without it? Hope you have a good week.

Cocoa & Heart said...

The bunting looks really good and I like the plague too - very cheery colours. Definitelly agree with the title of your blog post, that is how most of my projects started.

Ali said...

The buntings lovely and I really like the bright colours on the door plaque. Ali x

Fiddly Fingers said...

These are very inventive and pretty. I hope Teaghan (and her sister) like them :)

Nicky said...

Oooh they are fantastic. And how much better is it that you made them rather than buying them?!? It will mean so much more to the girls as they grow old enough to understand. And what pretty names they have! X

Unknown said...

Bunting looks great! I thought it was fabric. Will have to check out this Craft Artist too.

stylesofcooking said...

Bet you are so gled you decided to make it yourself rather than buy from a fellow crafter coz it looks brilliant. Well done on a great job.

Carolee Crafts said...

Well done on your makes this week, so much more fun to make than buy and hers will be unique.

fatmonica said...

Love the bunting!Hope Teaghan enjoys being in her own room!

Rachel said...

Helen they are gorgeous; you really need to start selling some stuff.

xx

MsXpat said...

Very valid and useful point, making things give them special significance. Bunting looks great too. I'm a new follower on Twitter via Silent Sunday :0)